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‘The Hindu’ journalist Mahesh Langa denied bail in GST scam case

‘The Hindu’ journalist Mahesh Langa denied bail in GST scam case

A court in Gujarat has done so rejected the bail application of journalist Mahesh Langa in a case involving an alleged goods and services tax fraud, reported Bar and sofa on Wednesday.

While denying bail to Langa on Friday, Additional Chief Judge Manish V Chauhan said the journalist had prima facie conspired with others to evade income tax and goods and services tax.

Langa works for The Hindu in Ahmedabad.

The court said that according to an investigation, Langa was directly involved in transactions worth Rs 44 crore through a company called Dhruvi Enterprises.

The transactions appeared to have been carried out to facilitate bogus tax credits, resulting in the loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer, the court said.

“After reading the pleadings and objections filed, accused Maheshdan Prabhudan Langa along with the co-accused formed a criminal conspiracy against income tax and GST with a firm named Dhruvi Enterprises as manager of Paschan Saru Dhruvi Enterprises,” the court said. said in his command.

“A study of the case documents during the investigation revealed that the applicant/accused in this case played an active role in the crime,” the court said. “The investigation is ongoing. There is a possibility that evidence could be tampered with.”

Police have alleged that Dhruvi Enterprises set up six fake firms using a single permanent account number to fraudulently receive tax benefits.

After his arrest on October 7, Langa filed a plea in the Gujarat High Court challenging the magistrate’s remand order but withdrew the petition on October 14.

The journalist has since been involved in two additional cases.

On Tuesday, police arrested Lanha on charges of allegedly cheated a businessman in Ahmedabad.

The complainant, Pranay Shah, who runs an advertising agency, said Langa had allegedly offered to help publish “positive news” about him by using his political and bureaucratic contacts.

The police have filed a report second case against Langa on October 22 for allegedly possessing confidential government documents relating to the Gujarat Maritime Board. The documents were recovered from him during his arrest in the first case.

Pressure on bodies have urged police to drop the case against Langa for allegedly possessing confidential government documents.

A joint statement by the Indian Women’s Press Corps, Press Association, Delhi Union of Journalists and Kerala Union of Working Journalists, issued through the Press Club of India, on Monday noted that journalists are likely to be in possession of all kinds of documents from different sources as part of their obligation to serve the public interest.

The Editors Guild of India also issued a statement on Monday saying it noted with concern the “concerning” action against Langa.